


Defying Gravity

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-04-25 23:25:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 13,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4980793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened when Jafar's lamp was brought to Storybrooke in the curse, ended up in Gold's shop and Zelena accidentally let him out?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'm Through With Playing By The Rules Of Someone Else's Game

Zelena didn’t know why she was even bothering to go to Rumple’s. Since he was no longer the Dark One, he was probably about as much use in helping her as Archie Hopper’s stupid pet dog. But maybe he still retained some memories from his Dark days that could help her to get what she wanted.

It had all seemed so easy when she first took Marian’s place. Even if she wouldn’t quite be achieving her dream of changing the past, she would still manage to ruin things for the sister who had had everything Zelena ever wanted: the chance to be raised by their mother, a father who had loved her, the lessons with Rumplestiltskin and the opportunity to cast his curse. And even though in Zelena’s opinion, Robin Hood was kind of a bore, at least he was someone who loved Regina. That whole time she had been pretending to be Marian, she had seen it in his face every time he looked at her: she was second choice, Regina was the one he really wanted. And even though the brat Roland thought she was supposed to be his mother, he still cried for Regina when he woke up from his nightmares. 

If Cora had never had another child, Zelena wondered, would she ever have wondered about what had become of the firstborn she abandoned? What kind of life would she have led if she had been raised by her mother? Would Cora have schemed to make Zelena a queen in the way she had with Regina, or would they have lived quiet lives on the family mill? If Rumplestiltskin had not had the option to have Regina cast his curse, would he then have turned to Zelena? 

If it had been Zelena with the opportunity to have that idiot author write Regina out of existence, instead of the other way around, she wouldn’t have wimped out in the way that Sis did. She would have told him to go ahead, and then she would have had the opportunity to find out what kind of life she could have had. But the author had screwed up, Henry Mills held the title now, and Zelena knew he wouldn’t do it for her. And Emma Swan was hopeless. She didn’t even want to be the Dark One, never mind the fact that she had been that for such a short time anyway, so Zelena knew it was pointless trying her. So Rumple was her last hope. She had to find some way of waking him from his coma, to see whether he knew of anything she could do, whether he could come up with a way of removing Regina from Zelena’s life once and for all.

Will Scarlet sat behind the counter in the pawn shop when Zelena pushed open the door. “You’re not welcome in here, Zelena,” he began as Zelena walked in.

“Well, if it isn’t Will Scarlet,” Zelena sneered. “Belle’s puppy dog. So you’re actually doing this now? You’re keeping this shop open while Belle sits by her husband’s bedside hoping he’ll wake up? Do you honestly think it’s going to make her love you?”

Zelena watched Will’s face, and knew that her words were hitting home, but she didn’t care. Taunting this idiot was the most fun she had had since Regina had imprisoned her in that stupid cell.

“So how does it feel, watching her sit by his bedside day after day, knowing all along that Rumple’s the one Belle always really loved, the one she’s going to go back to once he’s awake?” Zelena could tell that Will was struggling not to rise to her taunts, but felt no sympathy. It had only been what she had had to put up with all her life, knowing she was second best to Regina. Why should she be the only one to feel that way?

“How does it feel watching her hold his hand, stroke his hair, pray every day that he will wake up? When you must be hoping every day that he won’t, because the only way you and Belle can ever be happy is if he isn’t around? I can help you with that, Will. If you let me past, let me get to Rumple’s things to see if I can find a way to get what I want, I will see what I can do to make sure you get Belle and Rumple is history.”

He was tempted, she could see it in his face. “I’m not making any deal with you, Zelena,” he said instead, despite the struggle that was so plain to her. “Just get out of here.”

“Oh yeah? And what are you going to do to stop me?” Zelena sneered, attempting to shove her way past Will and into the back of the shop where she knew that somewhere, Rumplestiltskin lay in his comatose state. “

“I might not have any magic, Zelena,” Will pointed out, “but neither have you, not while you’re still wearing that bracelet Regina put on you.”

With a howl of frustration, Zelena picked up the nearest thing to hand, which happened to be a pair of wooden dolls, and flung them at Will, closely followed by a paperweight, then she picked up a dirty old lamp.

“Oh, bloody hell!” Will exclaimed, lunging for the lamp, making a grab for Zelena’s arm but Zelena twisted out of his grasp. “How the hell did that end up in here? I thought that was still in Wonderland...it must have ended up here in the bloody curse...Zelena, put that down, don’t touch it! He can’t be set free!”

Zelena’s eyes lit up. “Who can’t be set free?” Could it be that there was someone else able to grant her wish that Rumple couldn’t? Slowly and deliberately, she began to rub at the lamp.

“Zelena, don’t do it! Jafar, he’s dangerous...” Will made another leap for Zelena, but too late. With a loud bang, Zelena was thrown backwards, and the lamp clattered to the floor.

When Zelena opened her eyes, a tall, dark man stood before her. “I am Jafar, Genie of the Lamp. Mistress mine, my will is thine. Tell me your wishes three.”

To be continued...


	2. Dreams, The Way We Planned'em If We Work In Tandem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter Jafar realises how much in common he has with Zelena and thinks that she might be the person who can help him achieve his goal in changing the laws of magic, but does Zelena have other ideas?

Jafar struggled to his feet, taking in the scene around him. He appeared to be in an extremely odd place, some kind of curiosity store. At first glance, he appeared to be in a land without magic, similar to the one he had visited so long before when he went to retrieve Alice’s father to take him to Wonderland. And yet, as his eyes wandered around his new surroundings, he wondered whether there was magic in this land after all. What were these strange devices emitting light that the store was using instead of candles? And what was that strange yellow object on wheels making its way past the window? Was this really a land without magic or not? What was this place?

“Bloody hell, Zelena, you don’t know what you’ve just done.”

Jafar turned around at the sound of that voice he had once known so well, but had hoped never to see again. Will Scarlet, the foolish knave, stood before him, head in his hands. 

“Will Scarlet? You are here?”

As Jafar rounded on him, Will made a bolt for the door, mumbling something about needing to go and fetch the Sheriff.

Jafar continued to look around him. “What is this place?”

“Storybrooke, Maine. Everyone from the Enchanted Forest ended up here thanks to my sis. It’s a long bloody story. But never mind that.” The woman he had addressed as Zelena had got to her feet now. “Jafar. I’ve heard about you. Will mentioned you back when I was pretending to be Marian. You’re the one who tried to change the laws of magic. You could be just the person I need.”

Yes, he had tried to change the laws of magic, and in doing so, had ended up here in this lamp. Did this fool really think that she could succeed where he had failed?

“It started with my mother, Cora, who gave me up so she had the chance to meet a prince, after my father had abandoned her...”

Unwillingly Jafar found himself thinking of his own father, who had also walked away from his mother before he even knew that she was carrying his child, and of all the times he had wondered what would have happened had he been raised as the Sultan’s son.

Zelena hadn’t noticed the look on his face as she mentioned the past and carried on talking about her sister, Regina. “And I tried to change the past, so that I was the one raised by our mother and the one Rumple trusted to cast his curse, but it didn’t work, and I ended up stuck back here. Then my sister tried to get the author to write me out of existence...”

Jafar was no longer listening. If he had the opportunity to have written Mirza out of existence all those years ago, would he have done it? Faced with no other son but Jafar, would his father then have acknowledged Jafar as his own son, allowed him to become his heir? What kind of life could Jafar have had, if Mirza had never existed? He had to admit that he could understand where this Zelena was coming from as she wondered how life could have been different for her. Jafar had spent so many years imagining the life he could have had if his father had only accepted him, and then had come the day when he had finally managed to change the laws of magic, when his father had finally said that he loved Jafar as a son. Jafar had been unable to accept this at the time, choosing to kill him instead once he had got what he wanted, to hear his father tell him he loved him one time. And as he had taken his father’s life, he had enjoyed every last moment, thinking of the day when he had awoken among the rubbish of Agrabah, knowing his father had tried to kill him. However, this appeared not to be the case for Zelena.

“...and my mother died before I got the chance to meet her again, she was killed by a woman named Snow White, and now I’m never going to get the chance to build any kind of relationship with her, and I’m always going to wonder what might have been...”

Jafar found himself wondering if in this Zelena, he had finally found someone who could help him achieve his goal in changing the laws of magic. He had believed at one time that Amara was a worthy partner, and now he understood that he had made a mistake in stripping her of her powers and transforming her into a serpent. If he had not been determined to keep the power for himself, and Amara had still been his willing partner, then Amara would never have joined forces with Cyrus and Alice, and maybe Jafar would never have ended up trapped in this lamp.

“You know, Zelena, it may be possible for you to find out how things could have been if this Regina had never existed,” Jafar began. Just as it could be possible after all for Jafar to find out who he could have become in this alternate timeline. With him and Zelena working together, they could work out ways that it could be done, they could succeed where each of them had failed alone. He was about to open his mouth to say this to Zelena, but Zelena spoke first.

“Of course, you’re a bloody genie. You can grant my wish!” Before Jafar had the chance to stop her, to explain to her what he hoped they could achieve together, Zelena burst out with “I wish my sister Regina had never existed and I was the one in her place in everyone’s lives!”

To be continued...


	3. I Really Hope You Get It, And You Don’t Live To Regret It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened when Jafar's lamp was brought to Storybrooke in the curse, ended up in Gold's shop and Zelena accidentally let him out? In this chapter, as her wish comes true in a way she never imagined, Zelena begins to realise she should have been more careful what she wished for.

Zelena hadn’t been quite sure what to expect when she made her wish. But the one thing she hadn’t expected was to find herself waking up somewhere in the middle of the Enchanted Forest. Why had she ended up here, instead of married off to some prince or other like her mother had done with Regina? Instead, she was lying here in the forest next to – who the hell was she lying next to, exactly?

As Zelena slowly sat up, the man lying next to her grinned sleepily and said “Good morning.”

Zelena blinked. Robin Hood?

How the hell had this happened? Zelena had enjoyed flinging it in Regina’s face at the time that she was carrying Robin’s child. But the truth was, without Regina around, Robin held no appeal for Zelena. Even back in the days when Zelena was pretending to be Marian, once they were out of Storybrooke and not rubbing it in Regina’s face every day, Zelena had found their day to day life boring and had longed for the day which she had known had to come when Regina would track them down. When Zelena had taunted Regina with the revelation that it had been she and not Marian who had left town with Robin, she had felt alive again in a way that she never had when she was with him without Regina there to taunt.

Zelena looked around her. No kid. Maybe in this timeline Robin had never met Marian and they’d never had a kid together. That was the one blessing in this whole nightmare she had managed to wish herself into, that she didn’t have to play the doting stepmother to Robin and Marian’s brat. She often wondered how Regina had stood doing that twice, and that had been the one thing Regina had had that Zelena didn’t want.

“Is something wrong, sweetheart?” Robin asked.

Zelena shook her head. “I just had the strangest dream. My mother had another child after me. I had a sister, her name was Regina.” 

Robin shuddered. “Your mother should never have had the opportunity to have had any more children. After the way she was with you, the way she never entirely forgave you for the fact that Prince Leopold married Princess Eva instead of her once Eva had revealed to him that Cora had already had a child, and then when she was going to marry Prince Henry but King Xavier found out about you and put a stop to the match...This Regina character is lucky that she only exists in your dream, because no one should be subjected to the childhood you had with Cora. You were desperate to escape her, after all. You don’t have to see her today, you know, we can make an excuse.”

Zelena blinked. “Today?”

Robin nodded. “Yes. It’s today that we’re supposed to be seeing her. I thought that was what had prompted your dream. You always have these nightmares when it comes to time to see Cora. But we can put her off if you like.”

Zelena shook her head. “No. I’ll see her.” The first time Zelena had properly met her mother, and this fool wanted to put her off? She had to see Cora, to know the truth of what Robin was saying. Regina had told Zelena in the past that she was the lucky one not to have been raised by their mother, could she possibly have been right all along? Zelena had to see Cora for herself, to know the truth, and to maybe see whether she could change things, to know what exactly she had let herself in for. What could have been so bad that Zelena could have chosen this life, a life with this wannabe hero, slumming it in the forest, listening to Robin’s brags about how he stole from the rich to give to the poor, not to mention the Merry Men and their drinking songs and smelly feet?

“What the bloody hell is this?” Zelena raged at Jafar when Robin had left to change. “My sister gets the life with a father, her own horse, a chance to be queen, and I’m stuck out here in the forest with Robin bloody Hood?”

Jafar raised his eyebrows. “Your wish was that Regina never existed and that you took her place in everyone’s lives. Since Regina was Robin’s girlfriend at the time, I thought that included him and that being with him was what you wanted.”

“Why would I want this life?” Zelena demanded. “And what’s all this about my mother? You must know I would never want the life that Robin has just described.”

“Then you should have been clearer with your wish,” Jafar argued. “If you had told me in your wish that you wanted a happy childhood with your mother, or that you wanted the opportunities that Regina had had to become royalty, then I would have been able to grant that for you. Instead, you jumped into your wish without thinking about what you wanted to say. Instead, you merely wished for your sister to have never existed and that you took her place in everyone’s lives. In fact, before you made that wish, I had intended to discuss it further with you. I had hoped that we could work together to change the past, to get what we both wanted. But instead, you did not give me a chance to speak, jumping in with your wish before I had chance to put my proposal to you. Is it then any wonder that the wish you got was not quite what you had in mind?”

“Okay, we’ll talk more about it after I’ve seen my mother. I’ll work with you to help you get what you want, but you’d better help me get what I want as well.” Zelena angrily strode off, only to find herself coming face to face with the woman she had imagined meeting so many times over the years, the woman she was determined that now she would build a relationship with: her mother, Cora.

“Zelena, my daughter,” Cora began. “I have a surprise for you.”

To be continued...


	4. You Can Still Be With The Wizard, What You've Worked And Waited For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jafar realises that he may never get what he wants by working with Zelena, but is making a deal with Rumplestiltskin really any better way?

“Penny for ’em, dearie.”

Jafar whirled around. “Who are you?” he demanded of the figure stood before him, though as he took in the figure stood before him, the straggly hair, the skin with the greenish tinge, he thought he knew who this had to be. Even in Agrabah in his youth, he had heard the tales of the man people called The Dark One.

“Rumplestiltskin’s the name,” the Dark One replied. “And I believe I can help you get what you want. I’m here to offer you a deal.”

Jafar was initially wary. Enough of the stories he had heard about this man seemed to revolve around people making deals with him and then coming off worst. And after his experience where he had believed that he and Zelena could work together to achieve their shared goal, only for her to have merely used him for her own ends, he was unsure whether he could trust this Rumplestiltskin. But at the same time, he felt that no harm could be done from hearing what he had to say.

“The wish that you granted for Zelena, that Regina never existed...” Rumplestiltskin began. “I need it to be reversed.”

“And why should I help you with that?” Jafar asked, interested despite himself and allowing himself a moment of malicious amusement at the thought of Zelena losing everything she had wished for. If she had taken the time to hear him out and discuss working together instead of jumping in with her own wish, then he would not be considering joining forces with Rumplestiltskin. But she had pushed him to one side, and now he had a way of making her pay for that. 

“There is a curse,” Rumplestiltskin began. “I need it to be cast so that I can get to a land without magic, and find my son again.”

“I know this land,” Jafar replied. “I have been there before.”

“Let me finish, dearie,” Rumplestiltskin waggled his finger. “When Regina still existed, she cast the curse for me. And I need it to be her who casts it again. If she isn’t here, then Zelena will offer to cast it herself. But if she does, then I will never see my son again. There needs to be a saviour who breaks the curse. But without Regina, the saviour will never be born, the curse will never be broken because there will be no saviour in Zelena’s version, and I will find my way to the Land Without Magic but I won’t remember that my son Bae ever existed.”

“What do you mean?” Jafar asked.

“Her name is Miss Swan. Emma,” Rumplestiltskin explained. “She is the product of true love. But if it wasn’t for Regina, her parents would never have met and she would never have been born. Without Regina, Emma’s mother, Snow White would never have been cast out after the death of her father. He was killed by a genie not unlike yourself, dearie.” Rumplestiltskin let out a high-pitched cackle that immediately set Jafar’s teeth on edge. “On Regina’s orders. At least, he was in the original timeline. In this timeline, he’s still alive, and without Regina there, Snow will still be in favour, and when the time comes, she won’t be under the Troll Bridge to meet her true love, Charming.”

“Touching as this story is,” Jafar sneered, “what exactly does it have to do with me?”

“Because I need you to undo the magic you have done by granting your wish.” Rumplestiltskin explained. “Regina needs to be wished back into existence, so that she is the one to cast the curse, and Miss Swan is born to be the saviour. And I need you to help me make sure Zelena makes that wish.”

As Rumplestiltskin spoke, Jafar found himself remembering his time in Wonderland, when he was the one attempting to manipulate Alice into using all her wishes. The memory of the time when he held all the power, when he was able to use magic himself instead of being tied to the whims of the likes of Zelena, had him clenching his fists in frustration. He felt as useless now as he had back in the days when he was vying with Mirza for their father’s attention and affection, knowing that no matter what he did he would never succeed. Now, he was unable to reverse the effects of the wish he had granted without Zelena wishing to take it back, and it brought back the same feelings once more.

“I’ve been watching you, dearie,” Rumplestiltskin let out that irritating laugh again. “I know this wasn’t what you hoped for, that she ruined your plans just as she ruined mine. I can help you there. If you help me make sure that one of the other two wishes is used to undo the removal of Regina and wish her back into the timeline, I’ll see that you’re freed from the lamp. You will have the help of the Dark One in changing the laws of magic.”

Jafar didn’t need to think about it any more. He had thought Zelena was a worthy partner, but she had proved him wrong. Rumplestiltskin was the man he needed to work with in order to achieve his goals. 

He nodded. “I’m in. Tell me what you want me to do.”

Jafar thought he finally had a way to achieve his goals. Unfortunately for him, he was forgetting that none of the stories he had heard of people who had made deals with the Dark One had happy endings, and he failed to take into account that all magic comes with a price...

To be continued...


	5. No Wizard That There Is Or Was Is Ever Gonna Bring Me Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cora's plan to have her daughter save young!Snow and marry King Leopold doesn't work as well with Zelena, who finally starts to suspect that Jafar is working against her. But is Rumple really the person to help her get what she wants?

Zelena stared at Cora. “A surprise?”

“Yes, my dear.” Cora took her by the arm, led her away. “He should be here any minute. But before he gets here, I want to tell you that I’m sorry for the way I treated you all these years. I should have focused on wanting what was best for you, instead of blaming you for my marriages with Prince Leopold and Prince Henry falling through. And I’m sorry for making your life so impossible that you felt you had to run off with Robin Hood.”

As Zelena watched Cora purse her lips into a sneer so similar to her own every time she had ever mentioned Robin’s name in the past, she wanted to shout with joy. This part of her wish appeared to be coming true. Maybe Jafar had got something right after all. This woman standing before her, the one with the desire to make things right, this wasn’t the woman Robin Hood had described, the abusive woman who Zelena had been so desperate to escape from that Robin had been an appealing option.

“I understand, Mother.” Zelena replied. Actually, she didn’t, not at all. How could she, when she had no memory of the events that Cora was describing? But ever since she had first found out that the people who had raised her were not her parents, Zelena had longed to meet with her real mother, and now she finally had her chance. Who cared about a past that she had never personally experienced? She had her future now, and it sounded like she and her mother were going to get to build a relationship at last.

Suddenly, from behind them came the sound of thundering hooves. As Zelena turned around, a horse hurtled towards them, a girl clinging desperately onto its reins and screaming. A figure leapt out towards them, held out his hand to steady the horse. Zelena’s mouth dropped open as she realised it was Jafar.

“What the hell?” Zelena asked.

Cora pursed her lips. “I was just thinking the exact same thing.”

As Zelena watched, a man came running across the field towards them, who she soon realised was King Leopold, the man who had rejected her mother once he had been made aware of Zelena’s existence. So that meant...the girl must have been Snow White, who Cora had arranged for Regina to save in these exact circumstances in order that Regina could then marry Snow’s father.

Jafar led the girl and the runaway horse towards King Leopold. “Is this little girl with you?”

As Zelena stared, unable to believe Jafar had actually saved her, King Leopold raced over and pulled his daughter into a hug, before shaking Jafar’s hand vigorously. “I can’t thank you enough –“

“Jafar,” Jafar replied. “And it was what anyone would have done.”

“You would think so,” King Leopold replied. “But I can’t say I’m surprised that you, Cora, were prepared to stand by and watch her fall to her death from the horse. And you, I assume you are her daughter, Zelena?” He looked her up and down, pursed his lips with distaste. “You clearly take after your mother, so I should therefore not be surprised that you also made no attempt to save her.” He then turned back to Jafar. “You are a genie, I see. From Agrabah? I have heard stories of genies. I wish there was something I could do to thank you.” He glanced at Zelena once more, who gripped the stones for her remaining two wishes very tightly in her hand. Under no circumstances was Leopold going to use one of her wishes to grant Jafar his freedom before Zelena got her happy ending.

“Unfortunately, I am unable to grant your wish, for I currently have a mistress,” Jafar replied, casting Zelena such a malevolent glare that she instantly knew that Jafar had been aware of Cora’s plan all along and had done this to scupper Zelena’s chances of marrying King Leopold. 

“In that case, I am sorry,” King Leopold replied. “But I hope that one day I will get a chance to repay you in some way.”

He turned his back and led Snow White away, without sparing a glance for Cora or Zelena.

“You fool!” Cora raged at Zelena when he was gone. “Did you not realise that you were supposed to save that brat of a girl from being thrown from her horse, that I had arranged that so that King Leopold would want to marry you?”

And in a flash, Zelena caught a glimpse of the Cora that Robin had described, the woman she could understand why the version of herself from this timeline would have wanted to escape as soon as she had the chance. She wondered whether the version of Zelena who had lived that timeline, who had had different experiences, would have thought to save Snow, or whether she, like this current version of Zelena, would also have stood by and watched.

“No, I didn’t expect that from a woman who admits she never focused on what was best for me,” Zelena snapped, turning her back on Cora and rounding on Jafar. 

“What the hell was that?” she demanded. “Why did you save her, and ruin my chances of becoming the queen?”

Jafar sneered at her. “You and I both know that you would have had no intention of saving her,” he replied. 

“You didn’t give me the chance,” Zelena snapped back, ignoring the voice inside of her that thought he was right. “You did that on purpose, to ruin this new future I wished for. But why, when I had just agreed that I would work with you to help you get your wish to change the laws of magic? Did you not understand what working against me would do? If it wasn’t a waste of a wish, I would wish you back into that stupid lamp right now and throw it into the bloody sea!”

“Temper, temper, dearie,” came a voice from behind her, followed by a cackle that she knew so well.

“Rumplestiltskin!” Zelena exclaimed. Forget Jafar. If he was going to betray her, she didn’t need him. This time, she was going to succeed. With no Regina, Rumple was going to have to rely on Zelena to cast his curse. Things were starting to look up for her...

To be continued...


	6. 6.	No One Mourns The Wicked, So We’ve Got To Bring Her Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jafar and Rumplestiltskin finally fix on a plan of action to manipulate Zelena into wishing Regina back into existence.

“Did you think that was going to work?” Jafar asked. 

“Well, I didn’t think Zelena would have saved Snow of her own accord,” Rumplestiltskin admitted, “but I thought Cora might do something to make her do it. So that’s why I had to ask you to step in. And it did work, Zelena won’t be marrying King Leopold. We put a stop to that.”

“But she’s no closer to wishing Regina back into existence,” Jafar glared at him. “At the moment she thinks things are going great because without Regina, she’s going to be the one to cast your curse. If you didn’t want that, then why the hell are you teaching her magic again?”

“Well, I’m not teaching her anything she doesn’t already know,” Rumplestiltskin glared so ferociously that Jafar took a step back. He had never thought he would miss that irritating giggle until now when he was faced with Rumplestiltskin in this mood. “She remembers everything I taught her before, and I remember teaching her, so these lessons are pointless. And she also remembers everything that ever happened between us in the previous timeline. Last time I taught her, I wouldn’t allow her to perform the curse, because it requires the heart of the one you love the most. And for Zelena, at the time, that was me. But now, Zelena remembers everything that happened in the past. She doesn’t love me now, so I don’t think I can use that to prevent her from casting the curse.”

“So if she no longer loves you, then whose heart do you think she would use instead?” Jafar asked. “Not the fool Robin, considering her reaction when she found out that in this timeline she was with him. And as far as I can see Zelena loves no one else. Possibly Cora, since although they are not close in this timeline I know it was what she wished for.” And more because he wanted to see the look on Rumple’s face than because he genuinely believed it, he went on “Or you never know, while you’re training her, Zelena could fall for you again and need to use your heart.” 

The reaction he received was exactly what he was looking for. Rumplestiltskin shuddered. “She cannot be allowed to perform the curse,” he replied. “We must find another way.”

Jafar thought for a moment. “So is there anyone you know that could cast the curse instead?” He would have offered himself purely to shaft Zelena, but even if he still had his own magic rather than being bound to the confines of the lamp, the same stumbling block remained: he did not know whose heart he would use to cast the curse. The closest he had ever felt to love had been Amara, and she, of course, was long dead, as was his father. And out of all the people in Jafar’s life now – Zelena, Cora, Rumple himself – yes, he would gladly rip out the hearts of any one of them, but for the purposes of the curse they would be useless. 

“There is only one person I have ever known who would ever have been powerful enough to cast that curse, dearie,” Rumplestiltskin began. “And that was Cora. But Cora stopped using her magic after she was cast aside by both Prince Leopold and Prince Henry. Well, apart from what she did to the latter and his father, who will never be the same again.” He giggled again, and Jafar knew in that moment that he never wanted to know what Rumple was referring to.

“Now I think I can work with her,” Rumple went on, “to persuade her to use her magic again and get her to be powerful enough to cast the curse. But we have the same problem. Cora would need to use the heart of the person she loves most. But she removed her heart not long before what should have been her marriage to Prince Henry, and ever since then she has been unable to love.”

“I think I see where you are going with this,” Jafar raised his eyebrows. “So if Cora were trained again, and she had her heart restored to her body, she could in theory be the one to cast the curse instead of Zelena.”

“I’m glad you understand now, dearie,” Rumplestiltskin smiled. “I’ll train Cora in magic again, so she can perform the curse. But you have to do your part too. You have to find out where Cora is keeping her heart, and get her heart back in her body.”

Jafar frowned. “But you won’t be using her to actually perform the curse? When you first came to me, you told me that Regina needed to be returned to existence in order for it to go your way.”

“That’s true, dearie,” Rumplestiltskin giggled. “And it will go my way. Regina will perform the curse. All we need is for Zelena to think that I intend to use Cora.”

“Because once Cora has her heart back, the thing she loves most will be Zelena.” Jafar understood now. “So if Zelena thinks she is to be the sacrifice, then that will push her to wish Regina back into existence.” He smirked. “I like the way you think, Rumplestiltskin. So we’re agreed. You teach Cora magic again, I find her heart. And to make it all the sweeter, I will ensure that Zelena is the one to return Cora’s heart to her body. I do believe we have a deal, Rumple.”


	7. Too Long I’ve Been Afraid Of Losing Love I Guess I’ve Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, as Rumplestiltskin performs his half of the bargain he made with Jafar, he remembers his past with Cora in the altered timeline where Cora had kept Zelena.

“Hello, dearie.”

Cora shot Rumplestiltskin a disdainful glance. “Rumple. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be having one of your lessons with Zelena?”

“Zelena doesn’t need another lesson right now, Cora.” Rumplestiltskin smirked. “She’s progressing really well. I believe it will only be a matter of time before she is able to cast my curse. Just think of it, Cora dearie.” Rumplestiltskin giggled. “We could soon be living in a land without magic. Can you imagine yourself scrubbing floors by hand without any magical assistance? Of course, I forgot, silly me.” He giggled again, enjoying the look of irritation that flashed across Cora’s face. “That’s only what you’re used to from your days in the mill. So you’ll know what you’re getting into when you find yourself back there.”

“Is there a point to this conversation, Rumple?” Cora spat.

“I’m merely pointing out that it doesn’t have to be this way,” Rumplestiltskin replied. “If you were to cast the curse yourself, you would be able to choose your own fate. Whereas if you leave it to Zelena, your fate will lie in her hands. And after that conversation between you that I just witnessed, I feel that a return to your days of drudgery is beckoning.”

“You know that I no longer perform magic,” Cora replied. “And you know why. You played your part in that.”

“I am coming to realise that I may have made a mistake,” Rumplestiltskin answered. A little shamefaced glance at the floor, that was it. Cora appeared to be falling for it. “If I had allowed you to live your life as you chose, maybe then you would have been happier, and you would still be performing magic. Then maybe you would be the one I would be asking to cast the curse. Think of it, Cora. You could live the life you choose in the new world, instead of a subservient life chosen for you by the daughter you’ve never forgiven for the fact that you ended up here.”

“My actions have been for the benefit of my daughter,” Cora argued. “Can you say the same? Remind me, where is your son these days?”

Rumplestiltskin knew he couldn’t respond to that as he wanted to, because one false move would kill any hope of Cora working with him. “Well, if you agree to perform the curse, you’ll be able to ask him yourself. Zelena’s working on her magic, but I’m not sure she’s powerful enough to be able to cast the curse that I want. For the curse to work, I need you. Think of it, Cora, do you really want your daughter to take anything else away from you?”

He thought back to the days when he had first known Cora, when he had believed that she was going to abandon her plans to marry Prince Henry and run away with him. He wondered if Cora was also remembering everything that had happened all those years ago...

 

_Rumplestiltskin wondered why Cora had chosen her parents’ mill as the place to meet. From everything she had said, he knew her to have been unhappy there throughout her life. But it was what Cora wanted, and if Cora felt the need to say a proper goodbye to her parents, then it was fine with him. It was only one day, and then it would just be the two of them._

_He watched unseen from the shadows, waiting for Cora to make her escape and join him. But time went on, and Cora did not appear. Eventually, he tiptoed up to the house, glanced through the window to see if he could see her. There she was, sat talking to two people who Rumple assumed must be her parents. As Rumple watched, a small red-headed child walked into the room, and to his shock, she climbed onto Cora’s lap._

_So this was what she had been hiding, the reason why she had wanted to spend that last night at home. In this one glimpse into her life, Rumplestiltskin knew that he and Cora could never have a future._

_Rumplestiltskin never broke his deals, knew he never would again after he had failed to follow Baelfire into the Land Without Magic. Now Cora had made a deal with him knowing all along that it was a deal she could never possibly keep. The contract she had signed stated that Cora would give Rumplestiltskin her – their – firstborn child. Yet she had signed it knowing she could never honour that promise as she had had a child with another man._

_And she was prepared to abandon her child. Rumple still often thought of the father who had abandoned him, choosing a life as an eternal child in Neverland over being the father that Rumple had always wanted and needed. And every day it haunted him that he had allowed Baelfire to jump through the portal to the Land Without Magic alone, and the reason for his curse, the whole objective of his life now was to get him back. Yet Cora was prepared to abandon her child without a second glance. Even though the reason she was leaving was for Rumplestiltskin, he couldn’t enter into a relationship with her knowing that._

_He turned and walked away. He wouldn’t be meeting Cora tonight. But Rumple knew that he would find a way of reminding Cora of exactly why she should never make a deal with him that she knew she could never honour._

 

Rumplestiltskin watched as Cora tried, but the straw stubbornly remained straw and didn’t appear to be turning to gold any time soon. 

“You’re not trying, dearie,” he said, hoping to provoke some sort of reaction. “Think back to when you did it last time. You need to remember a time you felt some anger, any kind of emotion. Because I told you before, that’s what you need to perform magic. Think of how you felt that day all those years ago. Think how you felt towards King Xavier, Prince Henry, Zelena and me.”

 

_Fanfares sounded throughout the kingdom, the people turned out in their masses to celebrate._

_“It gives me great pleasure to announce,” King Xavier began, although the smile he had plastered on his face didn’t reach his eyes, “the betrothal of my fourth son, Prince Henry, to...the lady Cora.” The townspeople knew, of course, that Cora was no more than a commoner, but none would speak out, liking their heads remaining attached to their bodies._

_As Henry bowed and Cora curtsied, as the people broke out into applause, there was a loud bang and a puff of black smoke._

_“Sorry I’m late, dearies!” Rumplestiltskin exclaimed. “What did I miss?”_

_“You are not welcome here, imp,” King Xavier began. “Remove yourself from my presence.” However, no one was listening to him, because all eyes were fixed on the person Rumplestiltskin had brought with him to the ceremony, the person who even now was detaching herself from Rumplestiltskin and rushing over to throw her arms around Cora’s waist: Zelena._

_“Mommy, where have you been? Why did you leave me with Grandma and Grandpa? I thought you were never coming back!”_

_“What did she say?” King Xavier spluttered, face turning purple with rage. “Cora? Is this child your daughter? Were you trying to trap my son into marriage, to saddle him with someone else’s brat?”_

_Cora hung her head, shamefaced, unable to reply. However, Zelena’s determined sobbing and clinging to Cora’s waist spoke for itself._

_“There will be no betrothal,” King Xavier announced. “The wedding is off. Cora, you are banished from my kingdom. Remove yourself from my sight.”_

_“You have done this,” Cora spat at Rumple, “and I shall never forgive you.”_

_“Your intended doesn’t seem to be saying anything to defend you,” Rumplestiltskin began. “And you chose this weak man over me, and over your child. You made your own bed, dearie.”_

_She turned her back on him, turned towards King Xavier and Prince Henry. There was a big puff of smoke, and everything went black..._

Rumplestiltskin watched the look on Cora’s face, and knew she was remembering the same thing as he was. As he watched, the first lengths of straw slowly began to change to gold.

“You’ve done it, Cora,” Rumplestiltskin smiled. Silly Cora, he thought. She really believed that he was going to let her help him cast the curse. Instead, Cora was about to find out what happened to people who broke their deals with him...

To be continued...


	8. To Those Who’d Ground Me, Take A Message Back From Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jafar and Zelena go on the hunt for Cora's heart.

From the look on Zelena’s face when Jafar approached her, it was clear that she had been expecting and hoping for someone else. Rumplestiltskin possibly, although Jafar hoped and thought that she had been looking for Cora.

“Oh, it’s you. Haven’t you done enough for one day?” Zelena snapped.

Jafar forced his features into a smile. “Forgive me. I was only trying to help you.”

“And how do you work that out?” Zelena demanded.

“You would never have been happy if you had married King Leopold as your mother wished,” Jafar tried to explain. “Everyone knows the story of Regina’s marriage to him. Pushed aside at every turn, always coming second best to the brat Snow, never living up to the memory of Queen Eva, that is not a life you want for yourself. You would have been going into it because it was what Regina had had, and because it was what your mother wanted, not what you wanted for yourself. I was trying to allow you to make that choice for yourself.” Did he need to lay it on any thicker, or was Zelena falling for it? 

Zelena nodded unwillingly. “True. But then I could always have wished the brat out of existence, just like my beloved sis tried to do with me, and oh, look, where is she now?” A smile began to form on her face.

Jafar realised the conversation wasn’t going the way he hoped. “But would the marriage really have been worth it, for the sake of pleasing your mother? You heard the childhood Robin described to you, and I have no doubt it happened. And you saw your mother’s reaction when you failed to save Snow. It appears to me that Cora is a difficulty in your life.”

“And why is she like this? Because you didn’t fix it for me properly when I made my wish.” Zelena burst out. “I wish...”

Jafar held up his hand to stop her. “Be careful what you wish for, Zelena,” he began. “If you recall, that was exactly why your wish has not gone as you hoped, because you made the wish without taking the time to think about exactly what you wanted. You only have two wishes left; don’t waste a wish on changing something you can change yourself.”

He thought back to the days when he was so determined to get Alice to use up her own three wishes so that Cyrus would be returned to the lamp, and mused on how things had changed since then. If Alice were here now, he wondered, would she now be trying to persuade Zelena to use hers?

“And how do you suggest I do that?” Zelena demanded.

“I understand that Cora removed her heart many years ago,” Jafar began, “when King Xavier had ended her betrothal to Prince Henry. “Now if you were to put her heart back in her body, then things would be different between you. Your mother would love you again, and then you wouldn’t have to use a wish for that, but could use it on something else.”

Zelena nodded. “If only I knew where she would store it.”

 

“My part of the deal is going to plan,” Rumple said as he let out that giggle that Jafar was coming to loathe. “Cora has succeeded in performing magic again. But she will never be powerful enough to perform the curse, not until she has her heart back in her body. Which is where you come in, dearie. What news have you for me?”

“The good news is, Zelena agreed to put Cora’s heart back in her body,” Jafar began. “The bad news is she has no clue where Cora keeps it. Cora hasn’t got the vault she had before, and since the memories Zelena has are of the timeline where she didn’t grow up with Cora, she doesn’t know where Cora would keep anything. We looked all over the house for it, but couldn’t find it. You still have your memories of both timelines, you know this Cora, you must know where she would keep it!”

“I do believe I know where it might be,” Rumple replied. “She saw the heart as an obstacle to the future she could have had, just as she saw Zelena herself. So I believe she would have left it at the mill, along with the past she wanted to leave behind. She’ll have placed a protective spell on it, dearie, so you won’t be able to take it yourself. You’ll need to take Zelena with you, to be able to recover it. Then you will have done your part.”

 

“I still don’t understand why you brought me here,” Zelena complained as they arrived at the mill where Cora had grown up. “She hated it here. Why would she leave her heart in a place where she hated?”

 

“We’ve tried everywhere else at her home, Zelena,” Jafar pointed out. “And it’s not there. So I thought it was worth a try.”

“It had better be,” Zelena hissed. “You know, I could just wish for the bloody thing right now and then we could get out of here.”

Jafar pretended to humour her. “Fine, if you don’t find it here, you can wish for it. But I did warn you not to waste a wish, so think very carefully before you do.”

Zelena stifled a scream as she stormed into what Jafar realised must have been Cora’s old bedroom, opened a chest which had been pushed against a wall, started throwing the contents of it across the room in frustration. “Well, don’t just stand there, help me!” she shouted, kicking in anger at an old crib which Jafar thought must have been hers. As she kicked it, it fell on its side and a secret compartment which Jafar hadn’t noticed burst open.

Zelena’s face lit up. “That’s it!”

Jafar stared at her uncomprehendingly, only seeing an empty compartment himself, but as he watched, Zelena reached inside and lifted something out, an object he immediately knew must be Cora’s heart.

“That was the protective spell, dearie,” Rumple’s voice sounded inside his head. “Zelena was the obstacle, the reason for her removing her heart in the first place. So Cora made it so that Zelena was the only person who could retrieve it. She was just foolish enough to believe that Zelena would never attempt to.”

As Zelena gazed down on her mother’s heart, she imagined the future she and her mother could have once her mother cared for her again.

Jafar imagined how he could soon get rid of Zelena once and for all and how Rumplestiltskin and he could change the laws of magic together.

Cora continued to persevere with her magic, wondering what was the one last step she needed to reach the standard where she would be able to perform Rumplestiltskin’s curse.

And Rumple watched, savouring the moment as he knew that none of them would get what they wanted....

To be continued....


	9. Well, If That's Love It Comes At Much Too High A Cost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zelena's second wish has an unexpected outcome for Jafar.

“You’re improving, Cora,” Rumplestiltskin began, “but you’re not there yet. You’re not strong enough for the kind of magic I need to cast my curse.” He could see the frustration on her face as he said this, and had to turn away to hide his smile. “I remember when we first met, how quickly you managed to turn the straw to gold. You need to be back there, you need the determination, the fire, the emotion you felt back then. The memory of the day when King Xavier broke off your betrothal to his son, it doesn’t seem to have been strong enough to produce the results I need.”

“I’m trying as hard as I can, Rumple,” Cora snapped. “What more do you want me to do?”

“I want you to think back, to put yourself where you were back then,” Rumple replied, wondering how long it would take to occur to Cora exactly what was missing. “What was different back then, what was missing?”

“This!” came a new voice. Rumplestiltskin hid his smile at the sight of Zelena and Jafar making their way towards them, Zelena holding Cora’s heart in her hands. So Jafar had succeeded after all, and Zelena was about to return Cora’s heart.

“She’s right, dearie,” Rumplestiltskin replied. “It was your heart that was missing. Now that you have it, you can regain the emotion, the passion, that you need to use your magic to the best of your ability.”

But Cora wasn’t even listening to him. As Zelena had thrust her heart back into her body, she had embraced her only daughter, looking at her with loving eyes for the first time.

*****

“Such a touching scene,” Rumplestiltskin rolled his eyes at Jafar. “Such a shame it’s going to come to an end, dearie.”

“You’re absolutely sure that your plan will work?” Jafar asked. “You’re sure that Cora will make the decision to cast your curse over rebuilding her relationship with Zelena?” He gestured towards where Cora and Zelena sat talking, Zelena’s face lighting up as she looked at her mother and saw the love in her eyes that she had never seen before. “Because from here, it looks like she might not make that choice.”

“You don’t know Cora like I do,” Rumplestiltskin smirked. “When the time comes to make the choice, I’m sure she will make the right choice. She’ll want to cast my curse, she’ll want the power for herself.”

“How can you be so sure that she will make that choice?” Jafar asked.

“Dearie...I can be sure, because she chose power over a life with me,” Rumplestiltskin replied.

*****

Jafar had been right. It would have been a mistake to have wasted a wish on rebuilding her relationship with Cora when she had achieved her goal so easily by replacing Cora’s heart in her body. Now Zelena had the relationship with her mother that she had dreamed of ever since she had found out she was adopted. She finally believed that her mother loved her, had her best interests at heart, and that there was hope for a future with them.

Really, she didn’t need any more wishes. She had achieved what she wanted now – Regina had never existed, she was close to Cora now. As for Robin Hood, well, she had turned her back on that bore without a backward glance. Jafar had been right to say she should have been clearer in her wish, maybe then she would never have ended up with Robin. But things had worked out despite her initial mistake, and Zelena was now in the position she had always dreamed of being; close to her mother, and on course to be the one to cast Rumplestiltskin’s curse.

She imagined what she could do with the curse, ways in which she could improve on that which Regina had cast. Firstly, she had no intention of allowing Rumplestiltskin to have the same level of power he had held in Regina’s Storybrooke, no, not in Zelena’s world would he own half the town. That honour would go to Zelena herself, a Zelena who would be even more powerful than Regina, Madam Mayor had been. 

“You look deep in thought, dearie,” Rumplestiltskin said as he approached her.

“Just planning what I shall do with your curse, dearie,” Zelena smirked.

“Ah, but I’m afraid it won’t be as simple as that,” Rumplestiltskin let out his irritating giggle again. “You’re not powerful enough yet, but there is someone who is. Your mother, dearie.”

“But she wouldn’t do that,” Zelena began. “She has her heart back now, she wouldn’t –“

“Even if she didn’t, the point is rather academic,” Rumplestiltskin grinned, a grin that made Zelena long to slap his face. “If you cast the curse in her place instead, you won’t get your happy ending. The curse requires the heart of the one you love the most. And since you never loved the outlaw, and have no other family to speak of, the one you love the most now is your mother. And if she were to perform the curse, the one she loves most is you. So one of you has to rip out the heart of the other if this curse is to work. There is no other way.”

 

*****

“There has to be another way,” Zelena raged at Jafar. “If I wished that the curse didn’t require the heart...”

“Why so squeamish, Zelena?” Jafar asked. “Regina ripped out the heart of her beloved father without a qualm when she cast the curse. And this was a man who had raised her for her entire life. Would you really find it so hard? From all I have heard of Cora, I am sure she would feel able to rip your heart out if it meant the difference between her having the power attached to casting the curse and not.”

“Regina...” Jafar watched the expression on Zelena’s face and he knew it was starting to dawn on her.

“If your sister was still here, then your mother would have two choices; you or Regina. And Regina was the daughter she chose to keep; if Regina was here, would Cora not choose to sacrifice her to cast the curse?”

“Fine.” Zelena spat. “Then I wish my bloody sister back into existence!”

***** 

 

Jafar struggled to his feet. He looked around him to realise he was back in the same pawn shop where he had found himself when Zelena had released him from the lamp, and from the look of things, not much if any time had passed since Will had run from the store and Zelena had made her wish. Zelena lay sprawled on the floor, appearing unconscious. So Rumple’s plan had worked, and yet Jafar was back where he started, with no hope of getting what he wanted.

Where was Rumplestiltskin? Jafar intended to seek him out, to find out just how exactly he intended to honour his promise to work with him to change the laws of magic. “Rumple?” he yelled. “Dark One?” He stuck his head around the door, trying to see if he could find Rumplestiltskin somewhere in the back of the store premises.

“You called?”

Jafar spun around in the direction of the voice. The man stood before him had all the appearance of a Dark One, yet he was not the face Jafar had expected to see. This man appeared younger than Rumplestiltskin, with dark hair. One of his hands was missing, replaced by a hook.

Jafar stared at him. “Who the hell are you? I was looking for Rumplestiltskin, the Dark One.”

The stranger laughed. “You’re a bit behind the times, mate.” He held out his one good hand. “Killian Jones. Although some know me as Captain Hook. And I’m guessing you made a deal with Rumplestiltskin?”

Jafar nodded.

“Well, I’m the Dark One now. And any deals that you had with him, they’ve now passed to me.”

To be continued...


	10. Something Has Changed Within Me, Something Is Not The Same

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Hook recruits Jafar to help him get revenge on Emma, while the heroes try and work out what their next move might be and how to stop them.

Hook surveyed the man stood before him, wondering exactly what deal Rumple could have made with him, if any, and what Hook could do to use this to his advantage.

“It’s true, dearie,” came a voice from behind him; Hook deliberately didn’t turn round, not wanting to see the face of the man who had haunted him for so many years ever since Milah’s death at his hands. “I made a deal with him. He granted a wish for Zelena to erase Regina from existence, and I needed her back. So we agreed.”

The worst part of having become the new Dark One was having that voice, and especially the irritating giggle, in his head all the time. Not to mention having to see that face, the one that had haunted his nightmares for so many years, the one he had determined to eradicate from the world, and now there was no escape. “Shut up!” Hook yelled. Fortunately for him, Zelena had muttered something as she stirred, so Hook was able to convince Jafar that he had been talking to her. He flicked his wrist and Zelena fell back, lying in her prone position on the floor of Gold’s shop. Jafar laughed, said “I’ve been waiting for someone to shut her up for a long time.”

Hook smiled. “So, you made a deal with Rumplestiltskin?”

Jafar began to recount his tale of how Zelena had let him out of the lamp, how she had wished Regina out of existence only to realise she should have been careful what she had wished for. Rumplestiltskin chipped in when he could, much to Hook’s irritation, either adding his own take on the story or once when he felt that something Jafar had said hadn’t portrayed him in a positive enough light.

“And he told me that he never went back on his deals, and then I get here to find he’s not even the Dark One any more and can’t help me. No offence, but who the bloody hell are you?”

“I’m the new Dark One now, well, one of them.”

“In fact, he’s just like me, dearie.” Rumple giggled, even though Jafar couldn’t hear him. Hook clenched his one good fist. He had always hated the thought that he and Rumplestiltskin had anything in common, even having known all along that their feelings for Milah and having both been father figures to Baelfire were always going to give the two men common ground. But the day when Hook had found out what had happened with Rumplestiltskin’s father, and realised that both men had a history of having been abandoned by their fathers and had survived that, he had felt some irritation at knowing that he had even more in common with the man he hated the most.

“So what is it that I can do for you, Jafar?” Hook asked.

“I want to be freed from my lamp, to be able to walk the earth, to do magic again, without being dependent on someone to release me from the lamp and ask me for three wishes.”

Hook smirked in the direction of where Zelena still lay slumped on the floor. “Yes, I can quite see why you no longer wish to be linked to her. Well, we may be able to help each other out with that. I have a plan to eliminate all light magic from the world, to bring back all the Dark Ones. If I succeed, the light magic which trapped you in the lamp will cease to exist and you will be free. But there’s something I need you to help me with first. Are you familiar with the name Emma Swan?”

Jafar nodded. “The saviour. Rumplestiltskin mentioned her name. I had to help him get Regina back into existence so that she could be born.”

Hook snorted. “She’s the reason I became the Dark One. She took everything I was from me, and now I need to take something from her. Will you help me with that?”

Hook could see the frustration flash across Jafar’s face as he saw that yet another Dark One was asking him for a favour. But he also knew that the promise of freedom would win out.

“What do you need me to do?”

 

 

“So where is this Jafar now?” Mary Margaret asked. The group were gathered in Granny’s – Mary Margaret, David, Regina, Robin, Leroy, Emma, Granny, Belle, listening to Will tell his tale.

“I don’t know. I left him and Zelena in the shop while I went to get you lot.” Will explained.

“You left a genie who wanted to change the laws of magic alone with my sister, with three wishes, giving her the opportunity to wish for who the hell knows what?” Regina demanded. 

“Shouting at him isn’t going to work, Regina,” David pointed out. “Go on, Will.”

“That’s all I know.” Will explained. “But we have to do something to stop him.”

“And if someone like that meets Killian, then who knows what might happen?” Emma asked. “We have to find some way to stop him.”

“Too bad we don’t have a handy Nyx around to put him back in his lamp,” Leroy growled. “Jafar, Zelena and Hook, just the combination we don’t want together.”

“We have an advantage now,” Mary Margaret pointed out. “Will, you’ve gone up against Jafar before, so you know what tactics he might use. That was an advantage you didn’t have back then. Based on what you know of him, what do you think he might do?”

“He’s a bloody genie, Mary Margaret,” Will pointed out. “He has to go along with whatever Zelena wishes for. But at the time, he used to use people’s loved ones against them. Maybe because it was something he never had himself. He used Anastasia against me, and he tried to use Alice’s father to get her to do what he wanted. So he might try that one again.”

He looked at Emma, then at Regina. “Oh, bloody hell.” 

“What’s the matter?” Robin asked.

“So, Killian hates you,” Will said to Emma, “and Zelena hates you,” to Regina, “and Jafar’s going to play on that.”

“Regina?” Emma asked. “Where is Henry?”


	11. But I Don't Want It, No, I Can't Want It Any More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the heroes search for Henry, Zelena makes a surprising alliance as she plans to defeat Hook, Jafar and Rumple once and for all.

This was not where Zelena had ever imagined she would have ended up. The future she had imagined for herself, where her mother had loved her, where Regina had never existed, hadn’t been anything like she had thought it would be. Could things have been different without Rumplestiltskin and his curse? If Cora had her heart back, if there had been no question of anyone needing to cast a curse at all and Cora not needing to sacrifice the thing she loved most, would Cora and Zelena ever have been able to form the bond that had been just beginning when Rumple had insisted that one of them cast his curse? And even after what had happened with King Leopold, would Cora have found some other way to ensure that she would become queen of some other realm?

Zelena would never know the answers to these questions. Maybe Jafar had been right, and she should have been more careful with her wording when she made her wish. But she could not pin all her troubles on that; with Rumple and Jafar working against her at every turn, Zelena was never going to get what she wanted.

If it hadn’t been for Rumple and Jafar depriving her of her opportunity to cast the curse, playing her and Cora off against each other in order to achieve the result he wanted, then Zelena would had had the opportunity to find out how life would have been if she had been Cora’s only child, the one who was kept.

After having wasted two of her wishes, Zelena had one wish left, and she had to think very carefully about how she was going to use it. Not again would she make a wish without thinking through the potential consequences, not when there was so much at stake. All those hopes and dreams she had had for a future where she was Cora’s beloved daughter, living the life Regina had had, and where was she now? Stuck in the town created by her sister’s curse and stuck playing nursemaid to Regina’s adopted brat, the old cuff back on her wrist once more, while Hook and Jafar planned how to defeat light magic once and for all, without her. She was the one with the wishes. Zelena could land Jafar right back in the lamp before he had time to do anything for Hook. What could Hook do, after all, when she was the one who still held the power over Jafar? As long as she held the wish, nothing at all. But squandering a wish, just to put a spoke in their plans, wasn’t the way. No, she had to come up with something better than that.

She knew what she had to do now, just not how. Rumplestiltskin and Jafar between them had ensured that she would not get her happy ending from her wish. Therefore Zelena had to do something to ensure that neither of them would get theirs either. Jafar would be easy – once the final wish was made, he would be back in his lamp until the next fool came along and set him free. Unless, of course, Zelena carried out the threat she had made to him after he had saved the young Snow White from the runaway horse, and dropped the lamp into the sea where no one else would ever find it, meaning Jafar would never again be unleashed on the world.

But Hook and Rumple? Not as easy. Zelena knew she had to defeat them both, and in such a way they could never come back from it. Then with them out of the picture, and Zelena holding all the power, maybe then she would be able to think again about the spell to change the past, to see how things could be different without any of them around to interfere. Or maybe there was another way. Maybe that could be her final wish, made very carefully, to ensure that nothing went wrong for her this time. But that meant she had to find another way to screw Jafar and Rumple just as they had screwed her.

Not that long ago, Zelena would never have imagined herself taking this course of action. But now it might be the only way open to her.

It was unthinkable. She may have to form an alliance with dear old sis.

 

“Okay, so he’s not at our place,” Emma said, “and he’s not answering his phone.”

“He wasn’t at ours either,” Regina said.

“I just tried Jefferson and Michael, and he isn’t with Hansel, Gretel or Grace,” Mary Margaret joined in.

“Damn it, they have him!” Emma cursed.

“Okay, let’s think about this,” Mary Margaret began. “Will, you know Jafar, what do you think he would do?”

“With Ana, he managed to make her believe that he was the one she loved and not me.” Will began, but Regina interrupted “But we’re not dealing with Jafar now, we’re dealing with my sister and with Hook. Jafar’s just got to go by what Zelena or Hook wishes for. And we don’t know how many of the three wishes she already used. She could still have all three left.”

“You’re right. So what we should be thinking about now is what would Hook or Zelena do,” David pointed out. 

“Which, knowing my sister, is probably the same thing.” Regina sighed. “Emma, you know Hook better than any of us. What do you think he might do?”

But before Emma had a chance to answer her, Robin grabbed Regina by the arm. “Look, she’s over there.” Regina followed the direction in which he was pointing, to see Zelena walking towards them, carrying something Regina couldn’t identify.

“What the hell – Where’s Henry?” Emma demanded, looking as though she were about to leap forward and attack Zelena, but David and Mary Margaret grabbed hold of an arm each, holding her back.

“He’s at your old place, Emma, with Hook and Jafar. They’ve put a protection spell on it, so that only Hook or anyone he chooses to let in can get in or out. But I have a way to get you in.” Zelena held out what she had been carrying, which Regina now realised was a severed hand. “Ever since that time when he wanted his hand reattaching and then changed his mind, Rumple kept hold of it in his store, and I’ve just been in there to steal it. It’ll work for the purposes of the protection spell. It’ll get you in.”

“Same as the one I used so that only Henry could get into my house,” Emma realised.

“Yes, that’s where he got the bloody idea. Now come on, take it, rescue your brat.”

“Why are you telling us this, Zelena?” Regina asked.

“A better question might be, why should we believe a word you say?” Robin continued. “Give me one good reason why Regina shouldn’t just send you back to your cell right now.”

“Because I want to get in some bonding time with my sis.” Zelena snorted. “Not bloody likely. I don’t give a damn about him, or any of you. But we want the same thing here. Hook, and Jafar, and Rumple, they all screwed me over, and we all want to bring them down. So that means we have to work together. You can trust me and get Henry back. Or you can lock me up again and let them wreak their havoc on Storybrooke. The choice is yours.”

Emma and Regina looked at each other.

To be continued....


	12. It's Time To Trust My Instincts, Close My Eyes And Leap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heroes finally rescue Henry, and it doesn't end well for Jafar.

“You’re not seriously considering it?” Robin asked. “You can’t trust her. None of us can.”

“It’s for Henry.” Regina replied. “I have to take that chance. If it was Roland, and Zelena was the only chance of saving him, wouldn’t you take that chance? David, Mary Margaret, you would do the same for Neal, right?”

“Regina’s right.” Emma nodded. “Come on, Zelena. It’s the only way.”

“No funny business.” Regina glared at Zelena. “I’ll take this.” With a flick of her wrist, the severed hand was now in Regina’s possession.

“Oh, please, you think I’m going to try anything? I want rid of your brat just as much as you want him back.” Zelena glared at Regina as they made their way towards the house where Emma had once lived. “And screwing over Rumple, Hook and Jafar is more important to me than screwing you.”

“Rumple?” Belle repeated. “Excuse me, but what does he have to do with anything?”

“We don’t have time for that,” Emma interrupted. “We’re here.”

 

“I still don’t understand what you want with him,” Jafar said, pointing at Henry. “Why do we need him for our plan to work? I can understand why you want him,” he continued, this time gesturing towards Rumplestiltskin, who lay sleeping on the floor. Henry wasn’t sure whether he had woken up once since they’d been there. “Since you finally got the chance to get your revenge. But what use is the kid to anyone?”

“It’s part of me getting a little revenge of my own, on Miss Swan.” Hook smirked.

Henry felt like telling him he needn’t have bothered. Since Mom Emma had become the Dark One, he had questioned whether she cared about him at all. That whole thing with Violet’s heart...that wasn’t something a mother would do. She was becoming like Grandpa, only caring about the darkness and the power, and Killian was now as bad. So he wasn’t pinning any hopes on her coming to rescue him.

“And after Zelena’s attempt at wishing Regina out of existence didn’t go her way, she needed some other means of getting revenge on her.” Hook went on.

Mom Regina. That was who he was pinning his hopes upon now. Henry knew of Hook’s protection spell, but he also believed that if anyone could get past it, it would be her. He had to believe that she would do whatever it took to rescue him.

 

“You want to do it, or shall I?” Regina asked.

Emma reached out and took hold of Hook’s severed hand. “Together.”

Each of them with a hold on the hand, they opened the door of Emma’s old house.

 

“So where is Zelena, anyway?” Jafar asked, suddenly noticing she was missing. 

“She’s right here!” Zelena exclaimed, storming into the room with Regina and the others.

“Rumple!” Belle exclaimed, running to the side of her comatose husband, while Emma and Regina rushed to Henry, trying to unfasten his restraints.

“What the hell have you done?” Hook roared. “Are you trying to screw us over?”

Zelena slowly clapped her hands. “And he’s finally got it. Just like you all tried to screw me over so many times. You, you’re supposed to grant wishes, not interfere and mess everything up. Well, I’ve still got my one last wish, and I intend to use it to bring you down!” She reached into her pocket and waved the green stone representing her last wish tantalisingly in Hook’s and Jafar’s faces.

“No!” Hook yelled, lunging for Zelena as Jafar, fearing what she might do with it, tried to muscle his way in between them. In the confusion, the stone clattered to the floor. None of the three of them noticed in time to stop Henry, now free from the ropes that had been binding him, from picking it up, but Regina saw him, nodded once and she knew that Henry had understood what he meant. 

“I wish...” Henry began, as Zelena, Jafar and Hook turned around with identical frozen looks of horror on their faces, “that my mom and Killian were no longer the Dark Ones!”

As Regina, Henry, Robin, Mary Margaret and David watched, the dark cloud that had made its way towards Regina back when Emma had accepted the darkness instead began making its way towards her again.

“She took it for me once,” Regina began, “now I have to take it for her.”

“Regina, don’t do this,” Robin began, but before he could get any further, Rumplestiltskin staggered to his feet, stepped in front of her. As everyone watched, Rumple was enveloped by the darkness.

“What have you done?” Belle screamed, staring in horror at her husband who was now the Dark One again, her expression matched only by Zelena’s who was coming to realise that in spite of all her efforts, by becoming the Dark One once again, Rumple had managed to get exactly what he wanted.

“I’m sorry, Belle,” Rumple began, “But I missed my power. I’m not me without it.”

As Belle turned away and walked out in disgust, Rumple chasing her, Zelena reflected that Rumple hadn’t quite got his happy ending after all. She’d take that for now, and find another way to fix him later.

As Henry embraced Emma, he asked “Where did Jafar go?”

“You used the last wish,” Regina explained, pointing to where the dirty old lamp lay discarded on the floor. “Which means he’s trapped in there now until someone else rubs the lamp.”

“Then we’ll have to do something to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Hook suggested. “Maybe I’ll take a leaf out of your book, Zelena. I rather liked your suggestion of taking it out and dropping it in the bloody ocean. But maybe we’d better find somewhere safe for it instead. Not Rumple’s shop again.”

“What about Zelena?” Robin asked, watching the look on her face as Zelena realised that nothing was quite turning out as she had planned. “What are we going to do with her?”

“We can’t quite trust her yet,” Regina replied, waving her hand and the bracelet was once more on Zelena’s wrist. “She came through for us today, but it was about stopping Jafar, not helping us. Take her back to her cell for now, but we can reconsider it later.”

As Hook and David led Zelena away, she reflected on how she could have done things differently. Regina may have won this time, but Zelena wasn’t out of the game quite yet. Maybe one day she’d find another way to change the past....


End file.
